welde

+Ich welde mare þene ich dede mi ` wit´ ahte bon mare.

Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts Joseph Hall

The Englysh nete but short horse-spears could welde;

The Rowley Poems Thomas Chatterton

Now, good God, that is most wisest and welde of wits,

A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 William Carew Hazlitt 1873

Norden allowed this a century before: "The cleansing of many of these welde grounds hath redounded rather to the benefite than to the hurte of the countrey: for where woods did growe in superfluous abundance there was lacke of pasture for kine, and of arable land for corne."

The Coal Question~ Of the Iron Trade William Stanley Jevons 1865

He that schal ouercome schal welde [possess] these thingis, and I schal be god to him, and he schal be sone to me.

The White Rose of Langley A Story of the Olden Time Emily Sarah Holt 1864